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Ellipse foci review
Review your knowledge of the foci of an ellipse.
What are the foci of an ellipse?
The of an ellipse are two points whose sum of distances from any point on the ellipse is always the same. They lie on the ellipse's .
The distance between each focus and the center is called the focal length of the ellipse. The following equation relates the focal length with the major radius and the minor radius :
Want to learn more about the foci of an ellipse? Check out this video.
Finding the foci of an ellipse
Given the radii of an ellipse, we can use the equation to find its focal length. Then, the foci will lie on the major axis, units away from the center (in each direction). Let's find, for example, the foci of this ellipse:
We can see that the major radius of our ellipse is units, and its minor radius is units.
The major axis is the horizontal one, so the foci lie units to the right and left of the center. In other words, the foci lie at , which are and .
Check your understanding
Want to try more problems like this? Check out this exercise and this exercise.
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